


I'm not going (if it seems like I did, I'm probably waiting outside)

by SundayZenith



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: F/M, Likely OOC, pre-movie/series, set when Fred and Ari were kids/teens, this is silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 22:50:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20786351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SundayZenith/pseuds/SundayZenith
Summary: When Frederic first met Arianna.





	I'm not going (if it seems like I did, I'm probably waiting outside)

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from “never ever getting rid of me” from the musical, “Waitress.”

Frederic held himself still, flattened against the wall by the opened door and not daring to breathe. The palm of one hand was pressed so firmly against the wall by his side, even a ghost would be surprised it wasn’t phazing through. His head was twisted to the side, ears listening for any sound. 

Footsteps- fast as if someone were running. Frederic knew only one person would be running through this part of the castle at this hour.

_ Trevor _ .

With a grin, Frederic pivoted around the doorway, smashing the pie he held in his other hand into the face of the figure running through, knocking them backwards.

Laughing, he jumped completely into the doorway, saying, “How do you like _ that _ , ay Trev- oh.”

The figure sitting on the floor was wearing what had once been a lovely purple dress with long, brown hair. The pie tin slid from their face to the lap of their dress, and through its filling appeared, blinking, the greenest eyes Frederic had ever seen.

Once it had registered in his head that this was very much  _ not _ Trevor, Frederic flushed, scrambling to help the person by her elbow, saying, “I am so sorry- really sincerest apologies- I thought you were- not that it matters, this is very unprincely behavior, I know-”

Frederic cut himself off, hearing something- more running footsteps, though these sounded different somehow, as if the person running wasn’t wearing shoes.

_ Oh no, not Trevor, he’d never let me hear the end of this- _

The person who rounded the corner was, once again, not the other prince, but a little girl with brown braids. Frederic recognized her as the younger daughter of a nobleman attending the ball he had slipped away from, assuming Trevor would follow. The skirt of her dress was tucked into her britches and her feet, he realized, were bare.

“Arianna! I totally found the hall of portraits before you found the-” she skidded to a halt, eyes widening- they were almost the same shade as the poor person he had just pied, Frederic realized, likely making her the older daughter of the nobleman- “...Kitchen,” the little girl finished and then she doubled over in laughter at the sight. 

Frederic cleared his throat. “...It was an accident?” he said lamely.

The shoeless girl, gasping from how hard she was laughing, said, “You- you’re really just-” she snorted, “-just gonna let him get away with that, _ Dare _ -ianna?”

Frederic didn’t like the sound of that.

The person he had just pied- Arianna- turned to him and stared, green, green eyes unblinking. Then, slowly, she wiped some of the pie filling off her face and flung it at him.

Stunned, Frederic stared down at his now ruined clothes then back to Arianna’s face, which had split into a sweet grin.

“You know what, Willow,” she said, not looking away from him, “I don’t think I will.  _ Run _ .”

This last part, Frederic knew, was aimed at him, and he turned on his heel and did just than. As he ran, he heard the sisters following close behind, and he couldn’t help but join in with their breathless laughter.

\--

Decades later, Frederic and Arianna sat in the garden with their long lost and newly returned daughter, listening as she recounted how, when she had first met her boyfriend, she had struck him over the back of the head with a frying pan. And they shared a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: Sunshine-Zenith


End file.
